The present invention generally relates to purchasing systems, and more specifically, but not exclusively, concerns a sales system adapted to dynamically price goods and/or services over a computer network.
With the recent explosion in Internet commerce, the amount of stolen or pirated content has been on the rise. Encryption systems, such as Secured Digital Music Interface (SDMI), can be circumvented by hackers so that songs contained therein are freely available. For example, point-to-point (peer-to-peer) (P2P) programs, such as Napster and Gnutella, have made it very easy for a person to copy copyrighted material without compensating the author or artist. Consumers who download the pirated content believe that it is “free”; when in actuality they are “stealing” the author's work. Current intellectual property laws are not comprehensive enough and have not quickly adapted to cover this developing technology. Since intellectual property rights vary internationally, enforcement of those rights across national boundaries can be difficult. Although suits against P2P providers, such as Napster, have been successful, the cost and time involved in achieving a successful result can be prohibitive. Moreover, systems like Gnutella do not require a central index server for maintaining a list of users. This decentralized approach makes it nearly impossible to shutdown such systems since there is no central operator to target for suit. Pursuing legal remedies against individual users who break copyright laws only antagonizes the public further and creates further animosity towards the recording, movie, software and publishing industries.
Due to their popularity, the P2P swapping services, like Napster and Gnutella, have dramatically increased network loads of institutions where such services are extremely popular, like colleges and universities. To combat the increased network loads, universities have denied students access to such services across their networks. Thus, these services are severely hampered in contacting an extremely desirable demographic of consumers, students.
Therefore, there has been a long-felt need for a system to provide digital media priced so that content suppliers can make a profit, and at the same time provide an incentive for consumers to purchase and not steal content.
One form of the present invention concerns a unique digital media content purchasing system. Other forms concern unique systems, apparatus and techniques for supplying media content.
According to one aspect of the disclosure, a method includes the step of identifying a plurality of media items belonging to a category. A processor groups a first plurality of the media items identified as belonging to the category into a first group based on a sales criteria associated with each of the plurality of media items, prices each media item in the first group according to a first pricing strategy and sends a first price determined by the processor using the first pricing strategy of a first item of the plurality of items in the first group for sale from a processor to one or more clients over a network. A processor groups a second plurality of the media items identified as belonging to the category into a second group based on a sales criteria associated with each of the plurality of media items, prices each media item in the second group according to a second pricing strategy and sends a second price determined by the processor using the second pricing strategy of a second item of the plurality of items in the second group for sale from a processor to one or more clients over a network. The value of the sales criteria associated with each of the media items in the first group is superior to the value of the sales criteria associated with each of the media items in the second group. Also, the first pricing strategy generates a higher price for media items in the first group than the price generates for each media item in the second group by the second pricing strategy.
Other forms, embodiments, objects, features, advantages, benefits, and aspects of the present invention shall become apparent from the detailed drawings and description contained herein.